Andrew Brown's blog + Facebook | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown+technology/facebook
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Is the internet really killing religion in the US? | Andrew Brownhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/08/internet-killing-religion-us
The number of Americans saying they have no religion has risen alongside internet usage – but there is a simple explanation<p>Are 5 million Americans irreligious because they use the internet? Allen Downey, a professor of computer science in Massachusetts has been <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/view/526111/how-the-internet-is-taking-away-americas-religion/" title="">crunching the numbers</a> and reckons that the spread of the internet not only coincides with a great drop in American religiosity but partially caused it. He calculates that internet usage is responsible for there being 5 million more Americans without religious affiliation than there would be otherwise.</p><p>This sounds plausible, or at least familiar: it connects with two vague and widespread ideas: that religion is defeated by knowledge, and that the internet is a medium of enlightenment.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/08/internet-killing-religion-us">Continue reading...</a>ChristianitySocial networkingInternetFacebookTechnologyReligionWorld newsUS newsAtheismMediaTue, 08 Apr 2014 15:35:06 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/08/internet-killing-religion-usPhotograph: Alamy'Someone online is by definition not performing collective religious acts.' Photograph: AlamyPhotograph: Alamy'Someone online is by definition not performing collective religious acts.' Photograph: AlamyAndrew Brown2014-04-08T15:35:06ZFacebook is not your friend | Andrew Brownhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2010/may/14/facebook-not-your-friend
If you care about your privacy and that of your real friends, unfriend Facebook now. We are its product, not its customers<p>There is <a href="http://nyti.ms/cQwLnq">a wonderful graphic</a> on the New York Times site showing how Facebook's privacy statement has got larger and larger to cover the growing holes in its privacy policy. The mapping isn't perfect: if it were, the declaration of Facebook's dedication to privacy would have to be of almost infinite size, since the default amount of privacy Facebook now offers is practically zero. When the site first started, very few people could join, and nothing became public, even to them, without the users' express permission. Now everyone can join and everything is public to almost all of them unless you make a determined effort to hide it. This effort has to be renewed every six months or so when Facebook revises its privacy policy to make it more opaque and less effective. There is <a href="http://mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/">a wonderfully graphic animation of the process at this site</a>. </p><p>If you decide it isn't worth it, Facebook turns out to be very difficult to leave. It is very easy to "deactivate" your account, but it's also almost meaningless. Nothing is deleted by deactivation. If you return a year later, your account is still there, with the same password, the same friends and all the same data.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2010/may/14/facebook-not-your-friend">Continue reading...</a>FacebookGoogleTechnologyPrivacyInternetFri, 14 May 2010 16:30:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2010/may/14/facebook-not-your-friendAndrew Brown2010-05-14T16:30:00ZSocial media, God and suicide | Andrew Brownhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2009/aug/03/religion-catholicism-vincent-nichols-suicide
Was the Archbishop of Westminster right to suggest that social media can cause suicide?<p>"Facebook and MySpace can lead children to commit suicide, warns Archbishop" is <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/5956719/Facebook-and-MySpace-can-lead-children-to-commit-suicide-warns-Archbishop-Nichols.html">much too good a headline</a> to spoil with a fact. It contains all the right ingredients for a really enjoyable scare story: it's horrible, and it might be true, but we don't really think it's going to happen. And it's a fair bet that the head of the Catholic church in England and Wales, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, doesn't himself use facebook or any other social media, so he doesn't know much about the technology he's denouncing. Anyone who has used facebook knows that the only thing about it which could drive anyone to suicide is the user interface. </p><p>But that doesn't mean the Archbishop knows nothing about friendship. I think his remarks are best understood in the context of wider concerns about friendship and its dissolution in the modern world. In Nichols's tradition, personalities are something built up over time through the exercise of self-discipline inside a moral community. What worries him is the idea of choice and disposability, and there is a sense in which the new media do make for cruelty and irresponsibility. Anyone who has read any of the religious blogs will know that people say online things that they would never say to anyone's face just as we say things inside our cars that we would never say outside them. In both cases, we can just ride away from the consequences. </p><p><em>Well, for a start, if the Archbishop had his own blog of course, we could see what he had to say, without having to try and figure it out through the refracting lens of the Telegraph</em>, with its own agenda. <em>We could dialogue with him directly</em> and come to a clearer understanding of his perception and discuss it until we had teased out its most constructive use.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2009/aug/03/religion-catholicism-vincent-nichols-suicide">Continue reading...</a>ReligionCatholicismFacebookSocial networkingMon, 03 Aug 2009 14:43:03 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2009/aug/03/religion-catholicism-vincent-nichols-suicideAndrew Brown2009-08-03T14:43:03ZPete Broadbent attacks Ekklesiahttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2009/feb/24/religion-christianity
<p>Whoops! the Bishop of Willesden, <a href="http://www.london.anglican.org/BishopOfWillesden">Pete Broadbent</a>, an evangelical who used to be regarded as liberal, has gone all grumpy on his facebook page about <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/profile/jonathan-bartley">Jonathan Bartley</a> (who contributes here) and his think tank: </p><p>Bartley and <a href="http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/home">Ekklesia</a> are self-appointed self-publicists who speak for nobody. It's a pity that they get the publicity.</p><p>My complaint is that the media has swallowed this 'think tank' nonsense as though it gave them more credibility than the rest of the blogosphere ... Ekklesia float a pile of liberal horse manure and pretend that they're speaking for mainstream Christianity.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2009/feb/24/religion-christianity">Continue reading...</a>ReligionChristianityAnglicanismFacebookWed, 25 Feb 2009 16:30:39 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2009/feb/24/religion-christianityAndrew Brown2009-02-25T16:30:39Z